Oscar bait

Lore & Background

The term 'Oscar bait' has been used in discussions of films since at least 1942. A critical 1948 review of John Ford's Fort Apache in The New Republic ended with the sentence 'Postcards are supposed to be sent through the mail; flashed self-consciously on the screen, they look like Oscar bait.' The New York Times used it in a 1955 article about The Harder They Fall, and a 1968 ad for The Lion in Winter quoted a Cosmopolitan review praising performances as 'Oscar bait outings.'

The first film to seek Oscar nominations as a deliberate marketing strategy was 1978's The Deer Hunter. After a disastrous test screening, producer Allan Carr arranged for two-week screenings in New York and Los Angeles limited to critics and Academy members, then pulled the film from distribution until nominations were announced. It received nine nominations and won five, including Best Picture. This strategy was emulated by studios in later years, and by the early 21st century the term came into wide use among filmmakers and viewers.

Reader's Guide

Oscar bait films often share distinct characteristics: lavishly produced epic-length period dramas and war films set against tragic historical events, frequently contending for technical Oscars. A 2014 UCLA study of 3,000 films released since 1985 identified war movies, historical epics, and biographies as earning the most nominations, with plot elements of political intrigue, disabilities, war crimes, and show business being common. The study found that the most deliberately targeted film was 1990's Come See the Paradise, which received no nominations and failed at the box office. Not all Oscar bait succeeds; many films made with overt intent to pander to Academy biases receive no nominations, and audiences often avoid those in favor of nominated films. The practice has become a standard part of the film-release calendar, with studios releasing their highest Oscar hopes in autumn and December.